Breastfeeding in your area - Page 3

[sonrisaa29]

I live in PA outside of Philadelphia and I always see tons of women NIP everywhere.

[sharon71]

I know there are some BFing ladies from MDC in my town but I've yet to meet them. Other than my BF I think I've seen 1 or 2 other NIP moms.

[Da WIC Lady]

I see it all the time at work. Outside of work is another thing all together. I guess usually it's because it's really strange for me to see any feeding babies. Then again I don't get out often either. Most of the time I see NIP outside work it's when I'm doing thrifty things. For example, the Supercuts here has a hair cutting class that gives free hair cuts once a month. There was a mom that was NIP that had a baby that couldn't have been much older than DD2. I almost had to double take since I only noticed after I had latched DD on and was looking around trying to get an idea about how many others were in front of me. I guess otherwise moms are so modest that it doesn't even register on my radar.

Anna

[RolliePollie]

Outside of our nursing mama's playgroup, erm... none. Of course, I live in the state with one of the lowest (if not the lowest) bf'ing rate. But I did see a mama nursing her babe at the mall a few weeks ago.

[crazyrunningmama]

I spend my time between Vancouver BC and northern Washington state and I don't see it that often. More in Vancouver than small town WA, for sure. However, I continue to NIP my 20 month old, including on our recent trip to San Diego (Sea World, the Zoo AND the wild animal park, so I think I brought up the NIP stats for Southern California considerably!).

I was dealing with immigration at the Canada/US border the other day and saw a mama NIP'ing while dealing with the border guards (after watching her dd get progressively fussier). I could tell by the way they were processing her info that she was neither American or Canadian, and she didn't make eye contact so I couldn't give her a . But when her dd was done, she was all smiley (of course!) so I said to her, "do you feel better now?" with a big smile and the mama totally grinned back at me.

[MommytoHHH]

I live in rural (well, relatively rural) GA and the only place I have seen a mom NIP is my church, aside from my LLL meeting.

[Rikki Jean]

For the most part, only at crunchy gatherings, or when I'm around other crunchy/lactivist mamas. Once in a while I see women nursing under a blanket, but mostly I see bottles. I'm in the same general area as the OP, so I guess that makes sense.

I wish I saw more!

[St. Margaret]

I see it a lot at crunchy gatherings, but I have also seen it around-- usually under a blanket, but I was happily surprised when a mom began nursing her toddler after the library book babies half hour (in the small area a few of us were still sitting in). Yeah! I know I have also seen mamas in the backseat of a car outside the grocery store, for instance-- which at first I felt bad about, but now I'm doing that, too-- it's comfier than anyplace more "public" and DD actually nurses instead of trying to look around.

So not too much outside crunchy meetups but some! that said, no one has ever given me a hard time for NIPing all over the place. Oh and see my location-- San Diego.

[Peony]

I see NIP all the time, I'm in rural, liberal CO. Story time here is a parade of slings and breasts.

[hipmummy]

Originally Posted by amandaleigh37

I see none. Unless I'm at a LLL gathering

Same here. If I do see someone I give them a big smile. Altough a few times they gave me a dirty look. I gues they were not really into it.

[2sweetboysmom]

I live in SoCal, If I pay attention I see maybe 1mom NIP per month outside of our homeschool group.
I had to laugh the other day-I recently signed up for WIC and was assigned to the "breastfeeding moms" group. At the first meeting I went to, everyone seemed to be bottle feeding. Part way thru I nursed ds3 with no blanket or cover, and a mom across the room smiled and then nursed her baby too. Afterword she came up to me and said that she had never seen any other woman NIP at the BF WIC group before.
I do see a fair bit of slinging and Ergo usage around here. Though at my church of 300+ people I am recognized as the lady who is always wearing her baby. (some people did not know I had given birth for a month or so postpartum because I was wearing him in my homemade Moby style wrap 14 hrs/day)

[marfmom]

I'm in the Seattle area's Eastside. I see it all the time. There are several nursing mama's at Little Gym (although I may be the only one with a nursing 3.5 year old) including a set of nursing twins. It might be because I'm looking for it though. I love giving a knowing nod to nursing mamas.

[Mrs.Bufford]

The word on the street is that there are plenty of breastfeeding moms here. I've never seen any NIPing anywhere but my breastfeeding group though. I do it a few times a day ( I stay out of the house during the day, its better for my depression issues if I stay busy) and I hope I have encouraged a few moms to try it.

[Squirrel]

I'm gimpy enough that I don't get out by myself much since DS1 got mobile/too heavy to sling, but I've seen a bit of NIP here in Cleveland, and have been seen by others often also to the point that I get asked for breastfeeding advice by pregnant and new moms that I've just met for the first time, at least once every couple months that happens.

Especially when slinging a little one, it's hard to tell sometimes that a mom is nursing - I've had it happen several times that I was nursing the baby in the sling while using a motorized scooter around a store and people have looked down at the baby - whose head is not covered and face is visible - and not realize that he was nursing and snoozing. I keep my shirt pulled down to his cheek for my physical comfort (baby nails are sharp!) not for modesty and apparently it's way more discrete that way than trying to hide it LOL

I do hear from other moms how they "never see anyone NIP" and I haven't seen the advice I give them so here it is - start taking note not of whether the baby is actively nursing, but of what luggage the mama's carrying. If baby's in a sling and mama's carrying a purse that is either too small to hold more than her wallet, phone, and a disposable diaper or alternatively a huge artisan-made-looking beechcomber bag that is clearly one large pocket with no way to hold a bottle upright, in my experience you've got about a 95% likelihood that you've just spotted a breastfeeder. If baby is in one of those mega strollers, no bottle in hand, small bag (possibly a diaper bag) with a adult water bottle in the side - about 85% chance it's a breastfeeder. Older baby (as in able to sit up unaided) and mama carrying nothing more than a very small purse? Breastfeeder and possibly ECer (or just uses really small sposies, depending on purse size - those sposies really can be rolled up pretty small tho). And don't assume that the carrier carseat ones are all bottle-fed either - of the families I know who use the carrier style carseats (mine included) about 90% breastfeed (tho the subject pool is rather crunchy)

The only way you can be absolutely certain that you've got a bottlefeeder in front of you is if they have an actual bottle present, but then you can't be sure it's not EBM or, with an older baby, a supplimental juice/water bottle for hydration. Certainty of ABM is only achieved when you see either an obvious single-serve premixed bottle there, or see her shaking the powder into water.

If you start looking at the luggage, you might wind up rather surprised at the number of mom/baby dyads you'll suddenly realize most likely are breastfeeders.

As for how often I see it in public, that increased when I knew what signs to look for. I've seen it at local big box stores and fabric stores fairly often, considering I don't see babies bottlefed in those much either. I've met other sling-wearing mamas at my local JoAnn fabrics several times. And my UU church is predominantly breastfeeders, it's more of a surprise to see a baby get a bottle there than it is to see one breastfed. I'm frequently one of 3 or 4 nursing mamas within the "family section" of the sanctuary (we self-segregate to be able to make a quick step out if our little ones get really vocal/fidgety, tho we have a hard time keeping the little old folks OUT of the family area even tho the church administration has marked the pews to ask that they be reserved for families with small children... too many of the grammies and grampies ENJOY being around the little ones).

[Rikki Jean]

Originally Posted by 2sweetboysmom

I live in SoCal, If I pay attention I see maybe 1mom NIP per month outside of our homeschool group.
I had to laugh the other day-I recently signed up for WIC and was assigned to the "breastfeeding moms" group. At the first meeting I went to, everyone seemed to be bottle feeding. Part way thru I nursed ds3 with no blanket or cover, and a mom across the room smiled and then nursed her baby too. Afterword she came up to me and said that she had never seen any other woman NIP at the BF WIC group before.
I do see a fair bit of slinging and Ergo usage around here. Though at my church of 300+ people I am recognized as the lady who is always wearing her baby. (some people did not know I had given birth for a month or so postpartum because I was wearing him in my homemade Moby style wrap 14 hrs/day)

Can you come to my SoCal WIC office and nurse with me, because I am quite certain that I am the oooonly one! When I'm there, all of the other babies are usually being fed a bottle, in their carseat, through a blanket.:

A lot of people at our church didn't realize right away that I'd had DS2 either, because he's always in the sling nursing, and they just assumed it was a pg belly!

[sasntappy]

I used to live in Orlando too and hardly ever saw anyone nip. One weekend dh and I went to a car show and my younger dd needed to nurse. She was almost a year old and too wiggly to nurse while I was walking anymore, so I was looking around for some place to sit down and be comfy. After a couple of laps with no luck finding a chair I gave up and just sat down on the floor and started nursing. AN AMAZING THING HAPPENED! Within moments 3 other moms with babies had sat down near me and were nursing as well! Apparently we had all been looking for the same thing and when I just sat down and started nursing that became the nursing area. We were all laughing and commenting that we had never seen others nip i Orlando and none of us could really believe we were just sitting in the middle of the floor at a car show(not many women around!) nursing. Outside of lll meetings that was the most women I ever saw nip in Orlando.